One-on-One Duel (7)

"Kh."

Nam Da-eun came at me as if this were her last chance. That desperate performance was a lure, a calculated act meant to make me drop my guard. She wanted to plant the thought that this was her final struggle — that if I just stopped this one assault, the match was mine — and bait me into burning my double-cast.

A low, resonant hum filled the air. Mana poured from Nam Da-eun's body and wrapped around me. My limbs grew heavy. It felt as though the very air of the sparring arena had taken on weight and was crushing down on my shoulders.

She can even do this?

At this level, there was barely any difference between her and the Nam Da-eun from a year in the future. Just how much power had she been hiding all this time?

As the weight settled into my bones, turning aside her assault grew harder with every exchange. But as long as that violet edge — the telltale sign she was preparing Spatial Slash — stayed lit along her blade, I had to keep one double-cast in reserve to catch it with Cotton Guard.

I turned aside a cut aimed at my thigh and summoned a fireball to keep her honest.

This isn't going to work.

Insight laid out every one of her attack lines before she even committed to them, and it still wasn't enough. The speed and the power behind each blow were almost more than I could stop.

A thunderous crash rang out as steel met mana. I could still catch her strikes on Cotton Guard and throw a counter of my own, but Nam Da-eun was getting faster while I was getting slower. At this rate I was going to lose before she ever even used Spatial Slash.

I decided to throw the dice.

The reason she was holding Spatial Slash in reserve was because she wanted a sure thing. It was a skill she had never shown in public, so the thought that I already knew about it would never have crossed her mind. That assumption was the seam I needed to pry open.

The flow of the match was against me, but Nam Da-eun had her own reasons to finish this quickly — the drain on her mana reserves had to be enormous. If I deliberately left her an opening for Spatial Slash, I could bait the attack I wanted.

Spatial Slash could cut anywhere inside a space she had claimed with her mana. But what about a Rune Barrier?

Rune Barrier was the most powerful barrier magic in existence. Because it severed every connection between the space inside and the world outside, it ought to be able to cut off her Spatial Dominion as well.

"Kh!"

A blade slipped through a gap in Cotton Guard and traced a line of fire across my arm. Even with Acceleration running, being trapped inside Nam Da-eun's space meant I simply didn't have the speed. I opened the distance and invoked Rune Barrier.

The barrier swelled outward from my body and swallowed half the sparring arena.

"Let's end this...!"

The instant Rune Barrier sealed the space around me, that suffocating pressure vanished. Realizing I had broken completely free of her Spatial Dominion, I shouted as if I were at my limit and began to cast. Fireballs and flame lances bloomed in both hands — a full double-cast.

Across the arena, Nam Da-eun smiled.

"This is it!"

She must have thought I had finally run out of room to maneuver. The violet light along her blade flared with a brilliant, terrible radiance as she drew it slowly through empty air. A slash that transcended space itself should have carved my body in two ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and ended the match then and there.

But I wasn't cut.

"Huh?"

In that sliver of stunned confusion, I detonated a burst of searing light directly in front of her eyes. Under any other circumstance she would never have fallen for it — but I had caught her off-balance, and her eyelids slammed shut on reflex.

"Khuh!"

She recovered fast, throwing both arms up to shield her body and head, but there was no world in which I was going to miss. Flame lances threaded the gaps in her guard and punched straight through her.

She had taken my magic head-on without a proper defense. The wounds would be catastrophic. All that remained was to finish it.

Nam Da-eun raised her sword even with her body in tatters, but the look in her eyes was already one of resignation.

"..."

The heat that Combat Sense had poured into my head cooled by a few degrees.

Could I help Nam Da-eun right now? If I called in every connection I had, maybe. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Lim Sol, Baek A-young, Mun Su-rin, Elise — I was surrounded by capable women. If they decided to help, it would probably get done.

But using other heroines to help me conquer a heroine... no matter how I turned it over, that didn't sit right. I had been planning to spend the Iris Guild Leader's commission ticket Elise had given me on Nam Da-eun's behalf, but that wasn't the same as asking them to intervene directly.

Given the rate I was growing, half a year would be enough to save her myself. Strength, standing, influence — all of it. Pulling her out right now would mean leaning on other people whether I liked it or not. Half a year from now, I wouldn't need to. So the right move, for the moment, was to take a step back.

Honestly, a small, petty part of me still wanted to put that insolent Nam Da-eun in her place... but I also felt sorry for her. And conquering the heroines came first. Always.

I started tracing a magic circle while watching her stand there, sword up, bracing for my finishing attack — then canceled the circle, clutched my chest, and dropped to one knee.

"Gaaaah!"

I couldn't forfeit outright, which left me only one option: pretend my mana had run dry. All she had to do now was take the opening and cut me down...

Nam Da-eun just stood there, staring at me.

What are you doing? Come on, cut me!

The acting must have been too abrupt. She'd seen through it. I had been sure that even if she noticed, her fear for her sister would override everything else and she would cut me down without a second thought... but I was wrong. That carefully cultivated image of mine had just become a liability.

And then Elise came charging down from the spectator stands, all the way to the edge of the arena, and started making a scene.

"R-Referee! Cadet Lee Ho-yeon's condition is bad! Stop the match right now!"

The panic on Elise's face left me more bewildered than she was.

And what exactly do you think you're doing?

The referee looked thoroughly put-upon by the girl who had suddenly appeared at the foot of the arena, and waved a staff member over. Nam Da-eun still showed no sign of cutting me down. She just stood there with her pupils trembling, locked in some private war with herself.

"Referee!!! Stop the match!!! If he dies, it's on you!!!"

Down at the edge of the arena, Elise was making more of a racket than I was.

"Cadet Lee Ho-yeon. If there is a problem continuing the match, please say so and we will take the appropriate measures."

In the end, the referee came to me directly. I hadn't planned on forfeiting, but with Elise raising that kind of hell, it would probably be fine.

"I... I forfeit."

I closed my eyes and flopped onto my back in a full-body sprawl, committing to the method acting.

"Emergency patient! Emergency patient! Call an ambulance!"

...Is this really how this is going?

They loaded me onto a stretcher and carried me out of the arena. After a ride in something that may or may not have been an actual ambulance, I arrived at... the infirmary.

"We meet again, A-young."

"...There's nothing wrong with you. Why did they bring you in on a stretcher?"

Baek A-young had come running at the words emergency patient, and now she just tilted her head at me. Finding me, of all people, on that stretcher had clearly thrown her more than the emergency itself.

"...I'm sorry."

If I'd come to see you, why the hell would I arrive on a stretcher...

I still couldn't make sense of how this woman's brain worked.

After Lee Ho-yeon was carried out on a stretcher, the finals were over. His mana exhaustion handed the championship to Nam Da-eun.

She didn't feel even a flicker of joy.

He lost for my sake.

She had known his acting was terrible ever since he'd bought her that drink. She still didn't understand how he had blocked her Spatial Slash — but the attack he'd launched in the same breath had the look of a man who already knew her strike had failed. The damage she'd taken in that exchange had, for all practical purposes, ended the match. She had only forced herself back to her feet with a sword in her hand.

Unlike Nam Da-eun, who had been on the verge of collapse, Lee Ho-yeon's presence hadn't dimmed in the slightest. There was no world in which sudden mana exhaustion struck a man in that condition.

I was the one who lost... He must have wanted first place too... and he did it for me...

What had she been thinking, getting so full of herself? Letting him have runner-up — please. She had gone and taken the championship he handed her. The phone call with her little sister before the match had softened him, and he had forfeited because of it.

"Haa... I'm garbage."

She had sold out her own sister for a first-place finish. That was what it amounted to. And yet, in the end, she was grateful. Thanks to Lee Ho-yeon, she had taken first. It was as good as saving her life, and her sister's along with it.

I have to repay this. I will.

Nam Da-eun held that thought close — gratitude for the boy who had given her first place, and a quiet vow that she would return the favor.

The day after the practical exams ended, in a conference room at Victoria Academy, the entire first-year faculty sat gathered around holographic monitors.

"Now that the one-on-one duels are finished, shall we tally the scores?"

Practical exam grading was always done with every professor in the room. It was a matter of fairness, and of keeping the scores as objective as possible.

"Nam Da-eun won the one-on-one, so... she'll take first overall, yes?"

"Well, the points attached to the duel are enormous. We've never had a one-on-one champion lose the practical first-place seat."

"Ahem. Everyone, if I could have you look at this for a moment."

While the conversation was still circling Nam Da-eun, one of the female professors pulled a file up onto the monitors. It was a write-up of Nam Da-eun's conduct during the team exam.

"Ah... she still hasn't fixed it, even for midterms. She was already called out for this during the last ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠dungeon practical."

"That's right. There's no communication with her teammates at all. No cooperation whatsoever."

"If anything, Lee Ho-yeon — ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠who was on the same team — looks like he was the actual core. His combat power is comparable to hers, but he never pushed himself forward. He looked after the team first. And his read on the situation was overwhelming."

"Isn't that exactly the kind of talent the dungeon practical is supposed to identify?"

Lee Ho-yeon was already a finished product. Cadets his age had a habit of getting drunk on their own strength and ignoring everything around them. There was not a trace of that arrogance in him. His ability to piece together clues, find a path, and predict the boss monster was already at the level of an active-duty hunter.

"He also set a new record in the live monster combat drill. Stage 10 in nine seconds. That's genuinely unprecedented."

"How strong is his mind, that he shook off the nightmares the Nightmare of Hamel shows you in nine seconds? That doesn't make any sense."

"He may have a skill related to mental fortitude. Either way, Cadet Lee Ho-yeon's scores are going to come out very well."

The professor entered Lee Ho-yeon's marks and ran the combined total on the holographic display.

"Wait a moment. Even with the one-on-one included... Cadet Lee Ho-yeon's score is slightly higher?"

The duel carried enormous weight, but Lee Ho-yeon had still taken second in it. And Nam Da-eun had lost to him in both of the other two exams. The numbers had flipped.

"Poor Nam Da-eun. First in the one-on-one, and she still ends up second overall."

One of the professors shook his head.

"The points she lost on the dungeon practical were significant. It couldn't be helped."

"There's a sizable gap between her and third-place Elise, but first and second are separated by a sheet of paper."

"Then first place for this practical exam goes to Cadet Lee Ho-yeon. We'll announce the results after the remaining exams are finished, yes?"

"Mm. After next week's exams are done."

Looks like I don't even need to step in.

Lim Sol, who had been watching the discussion unfold from among the faculty, felt a quiet wash of relief. Lee Ho-yeon had taken first without her having to lift a finger.